Renovations are underway at a St. Luke’s University Health Network medical facility in Jim Thorpe.

Joe Bennett, of Bennett Family Properties, said the property at 1122 North St. was home to both Dean Anthony’s Banquet Hall and St. Luke’s Nephrology Associates of Carbon County. According to deed records in the Carbon County Courthouse, Jerome J. Citro Jr. sold the Dean Anthony’s property to Jim Thorpe Site LLC for $560,000 last year.

“We’re looking to put several services within that building, nephrology being one of them again,” Bennett said. “It will be a beautiful building for St. Luke’s with a brick facade and almost 9,000 square feet of space.”

So far, nephrology and family medicine are confirmed for the facility, with the total project cost estimated at $3.52 million.

Bennett’s Jim Thorpe Site LLC, through the Carbon Chamber and Economic Development Corporation, was approved for a 15-year $1.76 million Pennsylvania Industrial Development Authority loan at a 2.5% interest rate to acquire and renovate the 8,400-square-foot building.

St. Luke’s, according to a news release from Gov. Tom Wolf’s office, has committed to creating 35 new full-time jobs and retaining eight positions within three years.

Bennett said the target date to have physicians in is Nov. 1.

Like any current building project, he added, supply chain issues have played a role in how fast construction progresses.

“We’re excited that we were able to get started,” Bennett said. “We stripped down the interior right now and we’re starting to stud some of the walls. We also took down some buildings on the right side toward the ice cream shop. They were on stilts and one was a cooler room for Dean Anthony’s.”

While St. Luke’s is still working on other services that will be available in the building, Bennett said different specialties could be working out of it on different days.

“What happens is physicians go from facility to facility, so you might have a cardiologist who was in Bethlehem yesterday and today they’re in Jim Thorpe,” Bennett said. “You might have cardiology there on Thursday, nephrology on Wednesday and Friday, and other specialties for the other days of the week.”

Engineers representing Bennett and Jim Thorpe Borough are working together to hash out the finer parts of the project, such as stormwater management. A proposed one-way driveway going around the back of building adds impervious area to the property, but Bennett said work is underway to mitigate that.

“We have to make it pervious where water will run through and not increase the amount of it going off property,” he said.

Borough Council President Greg Strubinger said that area has historically been a trouble spot for water during big storms.

“We definitely don’t want to see a lot more runoff added to that area,” Strubinger said. “It’s good they have some new methods to do things to keep the runoff on site.”